THE NIGHT THE CITY’S MOST FEARED MAN FINALLY BROKE
Dominic pushed Elena behind him before she could see who had emerged from the elevator.
Marco raised his weapon.
Luca moved left.
Three security men surrounded the entrance.
"Don't shoot!" a woman's voice cried.
Elena recognized it.
"Rosa?"
Dominic lowered his hand slightly.
Rosa Alvarez had worked for Dominic's family for more than twenty years.
She had practically raised him after his mother died.
She was sixty-two, short, silver-haired, and normally impossible to intimidate.
Tonight she looked terrified.
She held something against her chest.
A wooden box.
Dominic stared.
"Where did you get that?"
"It was outside your apartment."
Marco glanced at the elevator.
"She came down alone."
"I checked the cameras," Rosa said. "Someone left it at your door eleven minutes ago."
Dominic looked at Marco.
"We were eleven minutes away."
"Exactly," Rosa whispered.
Elena stepped beside her husband.
The photograph of her father remained clenched in her hand.
"What is the box?"
Dominic didn't answer.
Rosa did.
"It belonged to his mother."
Dominic's jaw tightened.
Elena looked between them.
"This has something to do with seventeen."
Rosa closed her eyes briefly.
Dominic took the box.
"Upstairs."
This time Elena didn't argue.
Their penthouse became a command center within minutes.
Security personnel filled the lower hallway.
Marco checked every room.
Luca disabled the building's external network.
Dominic placed the wooden box on the dining table.
Elena placed the old photograph beside it.
Her father's face seemed to stare back at her.
For years, Gabriel Serrano had existed in her memory as a gentle man who smelled of coffee and cedar.
He taught her to ride a bicycle.
He danced badly at family parties.
He cried the day she graduated college.
Three years after that, he died from what Elena believed had been a heart attack.
Now she was staring at a photograph connecting him to Dominic's past.
"Were you going to tell me you knew my father?" she asked.
Dominic remained standing.
"I knew him."
"That's not what I asked."
"No."
The answer hurt more because he didn't soften it.
Elena folded her arms.
"Why?"
"Because the version of him I knew wasn't the father you knew."
"And you decided I couldn't handle that?"
"I decided dead men don't get to damage their daughters twice."
Elena stared at him.
"You don't get to make that decision."
"I know."
"Stop saying that."
His expression tightened.
Rosa looked away.
Marco suddenly became fascinated by the window.
Elena gestured to the box.
"Open it."
Dominic didn't move.
She had never seen him afraid of an object before.
Finally Rosa whispered, "Dominic."
He placed both hands on the table.
"When I was seventeen, my mother disappeared."
Elena waited.
"Everyone was told she died."
"Did she?"
"I saw her body."
His voice changed.
Barely.
But Elena heard it.
"Then what's the mystery?"
"The body was found three days after she disappeared. She had been tortured for information."
Elena's stomach tightened.
Dominic continued.
"My father ran everything then. He believed someone inside the organization betrayed her location."
"Gabriel?" Elena asked.
Dominic looked toward the photograph.
"For years, yes."
Elena sat down.
"No."
"Your father worked logistics for us. He had access to transportation records, safe houses, schedules."
"My father owned a shipping company."
"Exactly."
She felt anger rise.
"You investigated him?"
"I was seventeen."
"You blamed him."
"I blamed everyone."
Dominic touched the silver number on the envelope.
"Seventeen wasn't my age."
"What was it?"
"The number of people with access to my mother's location."
Elena looked at him.
"There were seventeen suspects?"
"Seventeen names."
"And my father was one?"
"Number nine."
"Who was seventeen?"
Dominic's eyes hardened.
"We never identified them."
Silence spread across the room.
Marco placed a tablet on the table.
"I pulled the building footage."
Dominic turned.
"And?"
"Camera feed was looped for eleven minutes."
"Professional?"
"Very."
Luca leaned against the wall.
"Someone knew the system."
Elena looked at Dominic.
"Someone close."
Nobody answered.
Rosa touched the wooden box.
"We should open it."
Dominic slid the latch.
Inside was an old silver watch.
A cassette tape.
And a folded sheet of paper.
Elena recognized handwriting before Dominic unfolded it.
Her father's.
She stood quickly.
"That's his writing."
Dominic read silently.
Then handed it to her.
Elena's hands trembled.
Dominic,
If you're reading this, then somebody has finally started cleaning up the past.
Your mother was betrayed, but not by me.
I spent years trying to prove it.
I failed because the person responsible was too close to your father.
If anything happens to me, protect Elena.
She knows nothing.
Keep her that way if you can.
But if Number Seventeen returns, the truth is buried where your mother spent her last free night.
—Gabriel
Elena couldn't breathe.
Her father had known Dominic.
He had known about her.
Dominic had been asked to protect her.
She looked up.
"Is this why you married me?"
Dominic's expression changed instantly.
"No."
"Don't lie."
"I'm not."
"My father asked you to protect me."
"That was years before I ever spoke to you."
"You bought my company's debt."
"Yes."
"You stopped investors from taking everything."
"Yes."
"And then you married me."
"Because I wanted to."
"How convenient."
Dominic crossed the space between them.
Elena stepped backward.
He stopped.
That small restraint mattered.
"I kept my promise to your father before I loved you," Dominic said. "I married you after."
The room became very quiet.
Elena swallowed.
He had never said those words.
Not directly.
Not like this.
Dominic seemed to realize it too.
But neither of them had time to respond.
Marco cleared his throat.
"The last free night."
Dominic looked away from Elena.
"My mother's last evening before she disappeared."
"Where was she?"
Rosa answered.
"The Belladonna."
Elena frowned.
"What is that?"
"A restaurant," Dominic said. "It closed fifteen years ago."
Luca shook his head.
"No. Building is still there."
Dominic looked at him.
"Who owns it?"
Luca hesitated.
"Vale Holdings."
Elena almost laughed from disbelief.
"You own the place?"
"Apparently."
"You didn't know?"
"I own hundreds of buildings."
"That's absurd."
"I've been told."
Marco zoomed a map onto the tablet.
"The Belladonna is three miles south."
Dominic picked up his jacket.
Elena stood.
"I'm coming."
"No."
She stared.
"Try again."
"Elena—"
"My father left that note. It mentions me. I'm coming."
Dominic looked ready to argue.
Then he saw something in her face.
Perhaps the same stubbornness he had fallen in love with.
"Stay beside me."
"Fine."
"Not Marco. Not Luca. Me."
Elena nodded.
They left through the building's private garage.
Two SUVs accompanied the sedan.
This time Dominic didn't place his head on her lap.
He sat upright beside her, one hand holding hers beneath the level of the window.
Neither mentioned it.
The Belladonna stood on a forgotten corner between abandoned warehouses.
Its faded gold sign still hung over the entrance.
Dominic entered first.
Dust covered the dining room.
Tables remained beneath white sheets.
Rosa had told them Dominic's mother always requested table seventeen.
Of course she had.
They found it near the back.
Elena ran her fingers beneath the tabletop.
Nothing.
Marco checked the floor.
Luca examined the wall.
Dominic looked toward an old photograph hanging nearby.
A black-and-white image of the restaurant's opening night.
He removed it.
Behind the frame was a small keyhole.
Elena stared.
"Seriously?"
Dominic inserted the silver watch from the box.
The winding crown fit perfectly.
Something clicked.
A section of wall opened.
Behind it was a narrow room.
Inside stood a metal desk.
One chair.
A filing cabinet.
And an old tape recorder.
Dominic placed the cassette inside.
Static filled the room.
Then a woman's voice spoke.
"My name is Sofia Vale."
Dominic stopped breathing.
Elena squeezed his hand.
The recording continued.
"If my son is hearing this, then Gabriel kept his promise."
Dominic's eyes closed.
Sofia's voice trembled.
"There are seventeen names on the list. Sixteen are distractions."
Marco looked toward Dominic.
Sofia continued.
"The person who betrayed me isn't on the list."
A pause.
Then:
"He made the list."
Dominic's face went pale.
"My husband believes the traitor is one of his men. He's wrong."
Another pause.
Sofia inhaled shakily.
"The traitor is his own brother."
Marco whispered, "No."
Dominic turned.
Elena looked between them.
"What?"
Dominic spoke one name.
"Victor Vale."
Elena had heard it before.
Dominic's uncle.
The beloved family adviser who supposedly died ten years ago.
The man whose portrait still hung in the Vale family home.
Then a floorboard creaked behind them.
Dominic turned sharply.
May you like
Someone was standing in the doorway.
And the dead man smiled.
Related Stories
Chapter 3 - The Uncle Who Never Died
Chapter 4 - The Woman They Buried
Chapter 5 - The Betrayal Beside Him
Chapter 6 - The King Behind the Kings
Chapter 7 - The Softness That Saved Him
